AfriGeneas Free Persons of Color Forum

assimilation of Chesapeake fpoc with LA Creoles

Does anyone know of any studies that deal with the assimilation of Fpoc with ancestors from 17th century Virginia[documented by Paul Heinegg] into the Louisiana Creole population beginning in the late Spanish period. Members of the Chevis, Gibson, Drake, and Perkins migrated to Louisiana during the late Spanish period. Some intermarried extensively with Creoles[i.e. CHAVIS family became CHEVIS or CHEVES in Louisiana after Creolization]. One of my uncles was a Louisiana Creole named Jean-Baptiste CHEVIS[fmoc] whose father was from North Carolina and his mother, Eloise MEULLION, mulatresse libre, was a Creole who was either born in Mexico or Louisiana[still researching]. Eloise was my ancestor.

Jean-Baptiste CHEVIS married a fwoc named Marguerite STRATTEN, a native of Virginia, in the Catholic church. Most of their children were Catholics and all were Creoles.

Many of these families that migrated to Louisiana during the Spanish period were either baptized or married catholic since Latin Louisiana did not recognize Protestantism. I found John SHIVERS, mulatre libre, on the 1792 Spanish Census of the Opelousas Post in Louisiana as an example.